Inhospitable Home

The first humans who ventured onto the Tibetan Plateau faced a brutal high alpine environment. And yet, rather than descend back to lower elevations, they stayed. And continued to do so… for the last 60,000 years, even through an ice age. This is far longer than the 15,000 years that had been the accepted estimate prior to the study. In addition, the scientists involved showed that the genetics of the Tibetan population occasionally harken back to far older and unique times, and have a higher proportion of pre-modern human DNA than their surrounding peoples.